----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Center for Migration Studies of New York
<cms@xxxxxxxxx>To: William Mejia <wmejia8a@xxxxxxxxx>Sent: Tuesday, April 13,
2021, 03:00:15 PM GMT-5Subject: CMS Migration Update - April 13, 2021
CMS's digest of news, resources, faith reflections, and analysis of
international migration and refugee protection (available in Spanish and
English)
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| April 13, 2021 |
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| Check out this week's digest of news, resources, faith reflections, and
analysis of international migration and refugee protection, brought to you by
the Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS). |
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| Haga clic aquí para la versión en español de la Actualización de Política. |
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Catholic Immigration Advocates Say ‘Christian Response’ Needed at Border
Crux (April 9, 2021)
Bishop Mark Seitz of the Diocese of El Paso calls on elected officials to
“transcend the partisanship” and to “Christianize” their response to migration
by asking: “what would be a truly loving Christian response” to those arriving
at our door? Faith-based organizations continue to provide humanitarian
assistance to migrants along the border and to speak against injustice within
the immigration system. In particular, faith leaders protest Title 42, which
permits immigration authorities to expel foreign nationals for public health
reasons and deprives them of the right to seek asylum. Although the Trump
administration initially implemented Title 42, the Biden administration has yet
to revoke it. Dylan Corbett, executive director of the Hope Border Institute in
El Paso, said that the city has the capacity to respond to these migrants if
they are admitted. However, the situation for deportees in Ciudad Juarez is
bleak. “The US government is planting the seeds of a real crisis situation in
Ciudad Juarez unnecessarily and causing real trauma. Juarez does not have the
resources to provide hospitality to these migrants and is a city which has a
real reputation for being dangerous for vulnerable people like migrants,”
Corbett said.
READ MORE
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Dr. Jorge A. Bustamante, Mexican Pioneer in Documenting Migration at the
Border, Dies at Age 82
He was one of the first to study the migration phenomenon at the US-Mexico
border and to record the numbers of crossings at San Ysidro.
San Diego Union-Tribune (April 2, 2021)
Dr. Jorge Bustamante, a scholar who led international efforts to document
migration and protect migrants, died in Tijuana, Mexico on March 25 at the age
of 82. Dr. Bustamante was a pioneer in documenting migration flows in northern
Mexico. In his long and distinguished career, he founded El Colegio de la
Frontera in Tijuana in 1982 and served as the president of the university until
1998. After he stepped down as president, he continued there as a professor
until his death. He also served as the Eugene Conley Professor of Sociology at
the University Notre Dame and was a member of the CMS Board of Trustees. He was
the first academic to study the movements of migrants through the San Ysidro
Port of Entry in California and to record the movement, duration, and motives
of migration. He advocated on behalf of undocumented workers in the United
States, and his dissertation for the University of Notre Dame included a
chapter describing his experience crossing the US-Mexico border without
authorization. Because of his work on behalf of undocumented migrants, he was
named the first Mexican special rapporteur for the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights. The Mexican government also presented him as a
candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. “I remember that in my doctoral
exam he told me that the most beautiful thing about me was my humility, to
always keep it up because there were academics who forgot to be humble and that
to study those most in need, such as the migrant population, we should always
be humble and put ourselves in their place because they had gone through
experiences that we could not even imagine,” said Chantal Lucero Vargas, a
former student of Dr. Bustamante.
READ MORE
VIEW CMS’s REMEMBRANCE PAGE FOR DR. JORGE A. BUSTAMANTE
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Migrant Boy Found Wandering Alone in Texas Had Been Deported and Kidnapped
Boy was seen by many in viral video as emblematic of desperation of migrant
children.
The Washington Post (April 9, 2021)
In March 2021, immigration authorities arrested 10-year-old Wilton Obregón and
his mother, Meylin, for crossing the US-Mexico border in Texas. They were
seeking asylum from domestic violence in their home country, Nicaragua.
However, they were promptly deported to Mexico under Title 42, which gives the
immigration authorities broad authority to expel foreign nationals on public
health grounds. They were prevented from applying for asylum. Within hours of
being deported to Mexico, Meylin and Wilton were kidnapped and held ransom for
$10,000. Meylin’s brother was able to come up with only $5,000, which he wired
to the kidnappers, who in turn agreed to release Wilton but not his mother. The
kidnappers abandoned Wilton north of the border in Texas where he wandered for
hours until encountered by a Border Patrol officer. The boy is still in US
government custody. A video by the Border Patrol officer who encountered the
boy asking for help has gone viral. Many view the video as an example of the
desperation unaccompanied migrant children feel when arriving at the US border.
READ MORE
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Their Lawsuit Prevented 400,000 Deportations. Now It’s Biden’s Call.
Trump tried to end a 30-year program that shielded migrants, many fleeing
conditions that US foreign policy helped foster. What does America owe them?
The New York Times (April 7, 2021)
Cristina Morales is from El Salvador. In 2001, she was granted Temporary
Protected Status (TPS) allowing her to live and work in the United States
legally. She renewed that status for nearly 20 years, and during that time, she
started a family and bought a house in the United States. Shortly after US
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirsten Nielsen announced in
January 2018 that TPS for El Salvador would be terminated, Morales reached out
to a national group that advocates on behalf of TPS holders. She and her
daughter, Crista Ramos, became lead plaintiffs in a lawsuit against DHS’s
efforts to end TPS. The case, Ramos v. Nielsen, included 14 plaintiffs from El
Salvador, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Sudan, and their US citizen children. A
nationwide preliminary injunction in the fall of 2018 stopped the deportation
of TPS beneficiaries from six countries. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit, however, overturned the preliminary injunction, which means that
deportations could start as early as October 2021. Unless the Biden
administration re-designates these countries for TPS or Congress passes
immigration legislation that legalizes TPS beneficiaries, 402,000 TPS
beneficiaries could be deported, separating them from approximately 273,000 US
citizen children, most of whom are under age 21.
READ MORE
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Foot Washing
Views from Alongside a Border (March 29, 2021)
Michael Seifert recounts his experience many years ago as a priest celebrating
Holy Week with men detained in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
Port Isabel Processing Center near Brownsville, Texas. The detainees asked for
the prayer service of the washing of the feet, which reenacts Jesus’ washing of
his disciples’ feet. It shows “that no one is above the obligation to care for
each other,” and Seifert remembers being profoundly moved by holding each man’s
feet in his hands and seeing the “maps of the journeys these men had suffered.”
Seifert remarks on the similarity of the detainees’ and Jesus’ plight: the
reason they were imprisoned has everything to do with keeping the political
peace and next to nothing to do with any actual threats to the social order.
Seifert notes that the biblical obligation for hospitality confronts elected
officials’ efforts to portray unaccompanied children arriving at the border as
threats to national security. Although it is not a fair fight, he writes, it is
nevertheless “a just, proper and holy struggle, with the lives and well-being
of innocent men and women and children in the balance.”
READ MORE
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Catholic Organizations Uncover Invisible Humanitarian Crisis
International Catholic Migration Commission (March 16, 2021)
The International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) is a member of the
Coalition of Catholic Organizations Against Human Trafficking (CCOAHT), which
is working to end the scourge of human trafficking. This Spring CCOAHT launched
a campaign to raise awareness about forced labor trafficking in the seafaring
industry, “one of the world’s most invisible groups of essential workers.”
Seafaring is one of the most dangerous occupations in the world because
seafarers encounter turbulent seas made worse by climate change, modern-day
piracy, long and grueling workdays, exposure to the elements, and lack of
medical attention while aboard a vessel. In pre-pandemic days, ships follow a
“crew change” policy that permits crewmembers to switch out every 4 to 10
months in order to protect them from exhaustion and to let them return to their
families until the next contract. During the pandemic, many countries have
closed their ports to ships. This has forced ships to remain at sea, trapping
crews long after their contracts have expired. Consequently, many crewmembers
are experiencing severe trauma as well as physical health issues. The situation
also subjects the crewmembers to labor exploitation because they are compelled
to continue working on the ships without a valid contract and beyond the
11-month at-sea limit required by international law. CCOAHT’s campaign calls on
people to pressure their governments and shipping companies to pay greater
attention to seafarers, to end the crew change crisis, and to designate
seafarers as essential workers with priority access to vaccines. The article
provides information on how readers can support their campaign, Solidarity with
Seafarers as Key Essential Workers.
READ MORE
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When Indonesian Fishers Gather
Scalabrini International Migration Network (SIMN) (March 20, 2021)
The Apostleship of the Sea, also known as Stella Maris or Star of the Sea, is a
Catholic nonprofit organization that works with seafarers and their families.
The agency has chaplaincies in ports all around the world, including in
Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. Indonesian fishers meet via Stella Maris in Kaohsiung
City and form support groups based on their place of origin in their home
country. The groups are open to fishers and other migrants who want to join.
They join for solidarity, to find a family in a foreign land. When a member
falls upon hard times or dies, other members gather donations to support the
member’s family. Faith is important to the fishers and communal prayer gives
them the strength to face the difficulties of their work. These groups also
afford a safe space for seafarers to share their struggles and complaints or to
celebrate Indonesian holidays.
READ MORE
FROM THE CMS ARCHIVE | “They That Go Down to the Sea in Ships”: One Hundred
Years of the Apostleship of the Sea
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US and Mexican Bishops Call for Better Migration Policies at Border
Crux (April 2, 2021)
On April 1, Mexican and US Catholic border bishops issued a joint statement to
address the current situation of thousands of children and families that are
arriving at the border. The bishops remind governments “there is a shared
responsibility of all nations to preserve human life and provide for safe,
orderly, and humane immigration, including the right to asylum.” The large
number of migrants arriving at the border has challenged the US government’s
ability to screen and house them. The bishops call on the United States and
Mexico to prioritize family unity and to pay special attention to vulnerable
groups, like children. The bishops also call for structural reform that both
welcomes migrants and respects the sovereignty and safety of Mexico and the
United States. Finally, the bishops call on both countries to work with other
states in the region to address the issues that force people to flee their
countries and migrate through Mexico to the United States.
READ MORE
READ THE JOINT STATEMENT
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Bangladesh: International Relief needed on Bhasan Char Island
International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (March 29, 2021)
The government of Bangladesh is in the process of transferring Rohingya Muslim
refugees from refugee camps in Cox’s Bazaar to a new refugee camp built on the
remote island of Bhasan Char, which is 37 miles off the coast of Bangladesh in
the Bay of Bengal. The island rose from the sea less than 20 years ago and is
composed completely of sediment that washed down the river from the Himalayas
to the Bay of Bengal. It is only two meters above sea level and prone to
flooding. After a visit to the new refugee camp by their representatives, the
Bangladesh Red Crescent Society and the International Federation of the Red
Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) called for urgent investment in the
protection of women and children at the refugee camp as well as the immediate
and long-term provision of healthcare, food protection, and education. The
agencies also expressed their concern over potential exposure during the
impending cyclone season. Sanjeev Kafley, Bangladesh Head of Delegation, IFRC,
said, “People on Bhasan Char could become stranded with a shortage of food when
major storms strike, leaving the sea passage impassable, in turn denying the
delivery of relief, medicines and other vital supplies. Everyone relocating
must have access to all of the essentials for a healthy life, including
nutritious food, hygiene items such as soap, along with health and medical
care.”
READ MORE
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Canada Expands Efforts to Welcome More Yazidi Refugees and Other Survivors of
Daesh
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (March 30, 2021)
The Canadian government is implementing a new policy to resettle more Yazidi
refugees. The Yazidis are an ethnic and religious minority in Iraq. The Islamic
State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), also known by its Arabic acronym, Daesh,
targeted Yazidis. Since 2017, Canada has resettled more than 1,400 Yazidis.
Many of those resettled refugees had to leave family members in Iraq. After
listening to community concerns that the definition of “immediate family
member” is too narrow, a new policy will allow the siblings, grandparents,
aunts, and uncles of resettled refugees to join their family members in Canada.
Canadian Minister of Migration Marco Mendicino said, “Having survived abuse,
torture and even genocide at the hands of Daesh, the Yazidis and other groups
are among the most vulnerable refugees in the world… Guided by compassion, we
are now redoubling our efforts to reunite their families.”
READ MORE
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Tigray Aid Response is Too Little, Too Late, Poll Respondents Say
‘A restrictive government, combined with insecurity and active fighting, can
completely hamstring the aid response for months.’
The New Humanitarian (April 8, 2021)
Between late February and early March, Humanitarian Outcomes conducted a phone
survey of 614 people in Tigray, Ethiopia. Although the government has regained
control of the region, military clashes continue and the UN has described the
situation as “extremely dire and far from improving.” According to a
Humanitarian Outcomes’ report, people in Tigray are receiving less humanitarian
relief than people in other conflict zones such as northern Nigeria,
Afghanistan, and the Central African Republic. Its survey found that fewer than
half of the people in Tigray who are impacted by the conflict had received any
aid since the onset in November 2020. Those who did receive aid said it was not
enough. Seventy-nine percent of respondents believe aid is not going to those
most in need, and 25 percent believe the government and military groups are
blocking or taking aid.
READ MORE
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NEW FROM CMS
Migrant Detention and COVID-19: Pandemic Responses in Four New Jersey Detention
Centers
Drawing on public records and interviews with wardens, immigration lawyers,
advocates, and former detainees, this paper describes the initial COVID-19
response in four detention facilities in New Jersey. The evidence presented in
this paper for the Journal on Migration and Human Security shows insufficient
action by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to contain the spread of
the pandemic and a troubling lack of due process in immigration court
proceedings for detainees. “Reducing the number of migrants detained in the
United States is needed not only in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic but
also as a preventative measure for future health crises,” write authors Sarah
R. Tosh, Ulla D. Berg, and Kenneth Sebastian León.
READ MORE
DOWNLOAD PDF
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POLICY UPDATE
On April 7, 2021, New York state lawmakers agreed to establish a $2.1 billion
fund to provide $15,600 payments to undocumented workers who are affected by
the COVID-19 pandemic but are ineligible for emergency federal relief. The
Excluded Workers Fund provides one $15,600 payment to New Yorkers who lived in
the state before March 27, 2020, lost income due to the pandemic, and were
ineligible for unemployment benefits or federal relief under the CARES Act.
Applicants must provide documentation such as tax returns, letters from their
employer, and paystubs to qualify for this payment. Individuals who cannot
provide the required documentation can qualify for a $3,200 payment if they can
prove their identity and state residency. The fund could benefit approximately
290,000 people statewide.
On April 8, 2021, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to permit 14 states
to challenge a lower court’s overturning of the 2019 public charge rule. On
March 9, 2021, the rule was permanently blocked after the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) stated that it will no longer pursue appeals of
judicial decisions blocking enforcement of the rule. As a result, the decision
of the US District Court of the Northern District of Illinois that vacated the
rule nationwide in November 2020 is in effect. The Immigration and
Naturalization Service’s 1999 interim field guidance on the public charge
ground of inadmissibility, which was the policy before the rule was introduced,
currently applies. The 2019 public charge rule tightened the standard for
public charge inadmissibility from likely to become primarily dependent on
public benefits to more likely than not to receive one or more designated
public benefits for more than 12 months within a three-year period. The rule
assigned different weight to statutory factors in this determination such as
age, health, family status, financial status, and education and skills. It also
considered the potential use of more public benefits in making this
determination.
On April 1, 2021, USCIS announced that it has eliminated the “blank space”
rejection criteria that it implemented in October 2019. Under the rejection
criteria, USCIS would reject Form I-589 applications for asylum and withholding
of removal, Form I-612 applications for waiver of the foreign residency
requirement, and Form I-918 petitions for U nonimmigrant visas, if there were
any blank spaces on the forms. USCIS has now reverted to its policy prior to
October 2019 and will not reject forms due to blank spaces. However, USCIS may
still reject forms, or a case may be delayed if the applicant:
- Leaves a required space blank;
- Fails to respond to questions about filing requirements; or
- Does not submit any required initial evidence.
On March 31, 2021, a Trump administration order that prohibited issuance of
certain green cards and work visas due to the coronavirus pandemic expired. The
Biden administration has no plan to renew the order. The immigration
restrictions were originally issued in April and June of 2020, and were
extended by former President Trump in December 2020. The order blocked most
prospective immigrants that were outside the United States from receiving green
cards. It also blocked issuance of certain temporary work visas to immigrants
who were outside the United States, including H-1B (highly skilled workers),
H-2B (nonagricultural seasonal workers), L-1 (managers of multi-national
companies), and J-1 (trainee/intern) visas.
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ACTUALIZACIÓN DE POLÍTICA
El 7 de abril de 2021, los legisladores del estado de Nueva York acordaron
establecer un fondo de $ 2,1 mil millones para proporcionar pagos de $ 15,600 a
los trabajadores indocumentados que se ven afectados por la pandemia de
COVID-19 pero que no son elegibles para recibir ayuda federal de emergencia. El
Fondo para Trabajadores Excluidos proporciona un pago de $ 15,600 a los
neoyorquinos que vivían en el estado antes del 27 de marzo de 2020, perdieron
ingresos debido a la pandemia y no eran elegibles para beneficios de desempleo
o ayuda federal bajo la Ley CARES. Los solicitantes deben proporcionar
documentación como declaraciones de impuestos, cartas de su empleador y recibos
de pago para calificar para este pago. Las personas que no pueden proporcionar
la documentación requerida pueden calificar para un pago de $ 3,200 si pueden
probar su identidad y residencia estatal. El fondo podría beneficiar a
aproximadamente 290.000 personas en todo el estado.
El 8 de abril de 2021, la Corte de Apelaciones del Noveno Circuito se negó a
permitir que 14 estados impugnaran la anulación de la regla de carga pública de
2019 por parte de un tribunal inferior. El 9 de marzo de 2021, la regla fue
bloqueada permanentemente después de que el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional
(DHS) declaró que ya no buscará apelaciones de decisiones judiciales que
bloqueen la aplicación de la regla. Como resultado, la decisión del Tribunal
del Distrito Norte de los Estados Unidos en Illinois que anuló la regla en todo
el país en noviembre de 2020 está en vigencia. Actualmente se aplica la Guía de
Campo Provisional de 1999 del Servicio de Inmigración y Naturalización sobre el
motivo de inadmisibilidad por carga pública, que era la política antes de que
se introdujera la norma. La regla de carga pública de 2019 endureció el
estándar para la inadmisibilidad de la carga pública, pasando de la
probabilidad de volverse principalmente dependiente de los beneficios públicos
a una probabilidad mayor de recibir uno o más beneficios públicos designados
durante más de 12 meses dentro de un período de tres años. La regla asignó un
peso diferente a los factores estatutarios en esta determinación, como la edad,
la salud, el estado familiar, el estado financiero y la educación y las
habilidades. También consideró el uso potencial de más beneficios públicos al
tomar esta determinación.
El 1 de abril de 2021, USCIS anunció que eliminó los criterios de rechazo de
"espacio en blanco" que implementó en octubre de 2019. Según los criterios de
rechazo, USCIS rechazaría las solicitudes de asilo y retención de deportación
del Formulario I-589, Formulario I-612 solicitudes de exención del requisito de
residencia en el extranjero y solicitudes del Formulario I-918 para visas de no
inmigrante U, si hubiera espacios en blanco en los formularios. USCIS ahora ha
vuelto a su política antes de octubre de 2019 y no rechazará formularios debido
a espacios en blanco. Sin embargo, USCIS aún puede rechazar formularios o un
caso puede retrasarse si el solicitante:
- Deja un espacio requerido en blanco;
- No responde a las preguntas sobre los requisitos de presentación; o
- No presenta ninguna evidencia inicial requerida.
El 31 de marzo de 2021 expiró una orden de la administración Trump que prohibía
la emisión de ciertas tarjetas verdes y visas de trabajo debido a la pandemia
de coronavirus. La administración de Biden no tiene planes de renovar la orden.
Las restricciones de inmigración se emitieron originalmente en abril y junio de
2020, y fueron extendidas por el ex presidente Trump en diciembre de 2020. La
orden impidió que la mayoría de los posibles inmigrantes que estaban fuera de
los Estados Unidos recibieran tarjetas de residencia. También bloqueó la
emisión de ciertas visas de trabajo temporal a inmigrantes que estaban fuera de
los Estados Unidos, incluidos H-1B (trabajadores altamente calificados), H-2B
(trabajadores estacionales no agrícolas), L-1 (gerentes de empresas
multinacionales) y Visas J-1 (aprendiz / pasante).
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| The CMS Migration Update is a weekly digest produced by the Center for
Migration Studies of New York (CMS), an educational institute/think-tank
devoted to the study of international migration, to the promotion of
understanding between immigrants and receiving communities, and to public
policies that safeguard the dignity and rights of migrants, refugees, and
newcomers. CMS is a member of the Scalabrini International Migration Network –
an international network of shelters, welcoming centers, and other ministries
for migrants – and of the Scalabrini Migration Study Centers, a global network
of think tanks on international migration and refugee protection, guided by the
values of the Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo. If you wish to submit an
article, blog, faith reflection, or announcement for the CMS Migration Update,
please email cms@xxxxxxxxx. |
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